Research

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A 5-day fast followed by a modified DASH diet significantly reduces 24-hour ambulatory systolic blood pressure and body weight in patients with metabolic syndrome, effects that are sustained three months post-intervention and distinct from diet alone.

For patients with metabolic syndrome, a 5-day water/tea/broth fast followed by 3 months of a DASH-style diet offers superior blood pressure and weight reduction compared to diet changes alone. This intervention allows many patients to reduce or eliminate antihypertensive medication while maintaining controlled blood pressure.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
In contrast, fasting followed by a modified DASH diet led to a sustained reduction both in 24h ambulatory SBP and mean arterial pressure (MAP)... Fasting followed by a modified DASH diet, unlike a modified DASH diet alone, significantly (drug-adjusted post hoc P<0.05) reduced BMI and body weight even three months post-fasting
András Maifeld et al. · Nature Communications · 2021

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with n=71, but published as a preprint without peer review.

Source

Fasting alters the gut microbiome reducing blood pressure and body weight in metabolic syndrome patients

András Maifeld et al. · Nature Communications · 2021

DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-22097-0

preprint · n=71Cited 195×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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